ATT: Electric Guitars and Empty Nests
by hotchityhotchhotch
Summary: Oneshot tie-in to All This Time. Summary is inside to avoid spoiling those who haven't read/finished ATT. COMPLETE.


**A/N: This oneshot is a belated birthday gift for MaccaForever. Enjoy! Her prompt was "guitar" and she told me it could be an ATT tie-in. Emily deals with empty nest syndrome and also struggles to understand her relationship with Ryan.  
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**Age Guide: Hotch: 64, Emily: 59, Sean: 49, Jack: 24, Henry: 21, Charlotte: 19; Ryan and Benjamin: 16, going on 17**

**March 2030**

"Absolutely not."

Emily was used to those words coming from her mouth, not Hotch's. It took her a moment to get over her shock. "Seriously? Come on, it's the Ryan and Ben's first birthday with all the other kids out of the house. They kind of got jipped, no?"

"Emily, they're twins. They've gotten special treatment for it since the day they were born. They're not hurting for attention."

"But…it's so quiet at home with only them..."

"Not quiet enough for us or the neighbors to appreciate electric guitars. They can start on acoustic until they get halfway decent, and by then they'll be out of the house so it won't be our problem anymore."

Emily reached across the restaurant table and tickled Hotch's hand. "First of all, you play acoustic guitars and electric guitars a bit differently. You can't just hop from one to the other. Second, Ryan wants the _guitar_, Ben wants a _bass._ And third…happy anniversary."

"Don't waste your time," Hotch warned her, staring back down at his menu.

"If we were at home right now, I might smack you," Emily said playfully. "If you're not going to give me my way, you at least need to be nice to me."

"I am being nice to you," Hotch mumbled. "Have you looked at the prices here?"

For eighteen years now, their date nights had been paid for through the same checking account, but she had appreciated this romantic gesture of a night out somewhere upscale—after two previous anniversaries in a row skipped over due to exhaustion and other plans—and didn't want to take that away from him. "I have. If the food is half as amazing as it is expensive, we're in for a treat. Thank you."

Hotch stroked the back of Emily's hand and gave her a fleeting grin. "You're welcome."

"I love you," Emily said without any pretense.

"And I love you. Let's spring for a really nice bottle of wine, shall we?"

"Are you trying to distract me?" Emily asked.

Hotch's smile disappeared into his thinned lips. "Is it working?"

—

"Did you talk to Dad?" Ben asked his mother the next morning before he and Ryan left for school. Hotch had already left for work. Having to finance three kids' ways through college (Charlotte and Henry's futures had been taken care of after JJ and Will's passing) meant that retirement was not in the near future for him or Emily, even though he was in his mid-sixties now.

Emily sighed and shrugged. "Sorry, honey. He still says you have to learn acoustic first."

Ben rolled his big brown eyes—his mother's eyes. In most other phyical respects, he had grown to resemble his father. For starters, he and his twin brother both towered over Emily. "Why is Dad so lame?"

Emily chuckled and scratched the ears of the dog, Mitch, who ambled over and sat his clumsy, old body down next to her. "I don't know, you should ask him. What's got you guys so hung up on electric guitars, anyway? Looking to start a band?"

"Yeah. Do you think if we ask for drums instead, we can work our way down?"

"Door in the face technique. I like it," Emily said with a twisted smirk. "Have a good day at school. Tell your brother to turn the radio down, please." She reached up and ruffled Ben's hair before giving him a kiss on the cheek. He didn't mind the affection one bit. Emily knew, though, that an attempt to kiss Ryan on the cheek would be met by a retching noise and a finger pointed down his throat.

Emily would be lying if she said her attempts to get the boys the birthday presents they wanted was some sort of attempt to earn their favor—at least Ryan's. He didn't seem to favor either of his parents, much more inclined to spend time with Charlotte (and, more importantly, her girlfriends) than to spend time with Hotch and Emily. Hotch had tried to assure her time and time again that most boys his age were like that, and that Ben and Ryan had never had to manipulate their parents to get their way like the older three children had done growing up.

Hotch was right. The word 'twins' meant special treatment. Ben and Ryan often got their way without trying. Ben was simply a mama's boy by nature, not out of necessity. And Ryan was a typical teenage boy—a new love interest every few months, an unhealthy obsession with the ten-year-old car he and Ben shared, and a propensity for objectifying women left and right. This wasn't to say that Ben didn't have the same attributes. But, Emily felt, at least he had the decency to make her feel loved—he enjoyed introducing any girlfriends to her and his father, washed her car when he washed his, and took care not to say the word "boobs" around her. She didn't think it was too much to ask. Ben was a somewhat muted echo of Henry in many ways.

But Ryan was simply an enigma. One she'd been trying to solve for the better part of seventeen years now. It was a different from her yearning for Charlotte's affections in a couple of ways. First, Charlotte had never been a loner like Ryan. She'd always clung to her father. In addition, Emily had cracked Charlotte's shell somewhat over the years. They had had their close moments. The most intimate conversation she'd ever had with Ryan was The Talk at ages seven, ten, and twelve, and he had reacted with just as much maturity as any normal boy, Hotch had been quick to point out.

Finding her way back into the present, Emily threw on a light jacket and locked up the house before leaving for work. During the summer, when the three older children were home, the driveway and street would be full of cars, bedrooms full of loud music, rec room full of playful bickering over whose turn it was to play something or which movie they wanted to watch. She wondered what was really bothering her—a renewed interest in gaining the favor of her youngest, or a bad case of empty nest syndrome.

Later that evening, she found that the answer was a combination of both. Henry surprised his brothers and parents with a drive home for the weekend. Emily's heart swelled and Henry almost had to pry his way free from her embrace. "I missed you so much, sweetie," she said, giving him another kiss on the cheek before releasing him. Even he could only take so much.

"I missed you, too," he said, granting her one more hug.

"Homemade mac and cheese for dinner?" Emily offered. She glared at Hotch, who rolled his eyes at her coddling someone who was old enough to buy his own beer. "Don't look at me like that, Aaron. You've made me macaroni and cheese before. It's my favorite."

She had a point. Hotch backed off, asking Ryan if he wanted to come watch a basketball game with him, Ben, and Sean in the den. Ryan declined, staying in the kitchen with Emily and Henry, the three of them preparing dinner together.

Maybe Emily had always been so convinced that Ryan was a mystery that she had missed it. Or maybe it had developed recently. Or maybe it was the result of a sick bet between brothers. Whatever the case was, she found Ryan almost downright clingy that night. And once dinner was eaten and Emily's request for someone to clear the dishes had almost emptied the dining room in an instant, Ryan followed her into the kitchen with an armful of plates.

She tried to keep her curiosity from being patronizing as she eyed him.

"What?" he said.

"Just…you. You're normally the first one out of the room when I ask for help. And you're normally not into being around me or your dad period, really. Not more than you have to be, anyway. Everything okay?"

Ryan nodded coolly, turning on the faucet and rinsing some leftovers down the garbage disposal. "Think you'll be that way when Ben and I come home from college?" he asked once the kitchen was quiet again.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked, tossing a dish towel over her shoulder.

Ryan leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms. "I dunno. All…all over us. All mushy."

Emily laughed softly. "I don't _have_ to be. I know you don't like that kind of thing." She squeezed his shoulder and went to the dining room for more dishes. When she met his eyes again, she saw she'd said the wrong thing. "Wait—do you _want_ me to be?" she asked.

"You are with everyone else," Ryan said a little sullenly. "Maybe not Charlie so much, but with Jack and Henry and Ben, you are."

"Honey…I always thought you didn't like that kind of thing, that's all," Emily said, her heart growing even larger but threatening to shatter at the same time. Had she been depriving her child of the affection he'd desired for all these years? Had she damaged him irreparably?

"I didn't," Ryan said, much to her relief, though she had to remember he could be lying. This was the best she would get out of a teenage boy, though. He wouldn't ask for hugs, kisses, and coddling. But she bet if she offered them, he would perhaps stop rejecting.

"Okay, well do you like that kind of thing now?" she asked hesitantly, unsure of how to approach this. Again, the boy was leaving her feeling helpless.

Ryan shook his head shamefully and started to walk away, but Emily caught him by the hand.

"Honey, come here." Emily wasn't sure what had brought on Ryan's change of heart. She hoped that maybe, if they got a little closer, he might let her in on that. But she had to be happy with the fact that, for now, he happily accepted her hug. "I love you so much," she said, kissing his cheek and rubbing circles on his back. "You know that?"

"I love you, too," he said back quietly. "Do you think there's any chance we can still convince Dad to go electric?"

"Yeah, not a chance, sorry," Emily said, patting Ryan on the shoulder before walking back for even more dishes.

"Never mind all that, then," Ryan said, scrunching his nose and cocking his head toward the kitchen, where they had just embraced. "I didn't mean it…the mushy stuff…"

Emily's mouth dropped open a little.

"I'm joking, geez," Ryan said, laughing.

Emily cracked a smile. "You have always been my funniest child, you know that?"

—

Though Emily's problem with Ryan had been solved, the empty nest syndrome had returned when Henry left Sunday afternoon, even though he'd only been back for a couple of days and his presence hadn't really changed the household dynamics on any sort of permanent basis. His departure had left them with a rather quiet house again, especially when Sean wasn't around.

Emily's mood slipped a little, even though, when she had kissed Ryan goodbye Monday morning on the way to school, he hadn't made any faces or noises.

Seeing this, Hotch had caved. He knew he would regret it when the complaints from the neighbors started rolling in, but clearly he was the only one in the house who didn't want a garage band. On the twins' seventeenth birthday, celebrated with just their parents, aunt, and uncle, they plugged an amplifier into an outlet in the garage.

A few hours later, Sean still hadn't returned from the store to pick up forgotten ice cream, Jessica was massaging her aching temples, and the dog was lying by the back door, whining incessantly.

"You happy now?" Hotch asked Emily, whom he found out on the front porch voluntarily listening to the sounds of dying cats and banshees issuing from the garage. The garage door was closed, but he was sure the boys—especially Ryan, who was attempting to redefine the word "shred"—could be heard for blocks, despite being asked twice to turn down the amp.

A smooth smile floated across Emily's face and she accepted a kiss from Hotch, hanging onto it for a moment. "Very."

**A/N: Please leave a review if you're still reading these ATT oneshots and enjoying them! Review-wise, interest seems to be waning, so if you want to keep seeing more of them, please let me know. :)**

**I owe a reviewer a oneshot and I also need to update Calleth You, Cometh I (my collab with SussiRay under the pen name TTTGF) soon, so look out for those! **


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